Monday, August 20, 2007

Below are the links to three articles (in chronological order) that constitute a recent spat over the status of Taiwan and whether or not the United States should come to the aid of Taiwan in the event of a P.R.C.-R.O.C conflict. All three appeared over the course of about a week in the Honolulu Advertiser,the first two an exchange between a columnist and a professor in the paper's "Commentary" section, and the last a letter to the editor in which Lin Yu-chong of the Taipei Times weighed in on the issue, later saying, "In my view, keeping silent on Lee's assertions can be seen as agreeing with his viewpoints."

Debates over whether or not the United States should aid Taiwan in the event of a conflict almost always return to the question of the historical case for Taiwan's sovereignty, which is why we believe it fitting to share these articles here. Many of the arguments that appear in these three articles also appear again and again in the debate over whether Taiwan has a right to UN membership.